188 research outputs found
BENEDICTE BULL: Latin-Amerika i dag. Nye interesser og gamle bånd til USA, Kina, Russland, Midtøsten og Europa
No full textKampen om naturressursar: Benedicte Bull byr ikkje berre på grundige analysar av stormaktspolitikk og samfunnsforhold i Latin-Amerika, ho byr òg på seg sjølv
BENEDICTE BULL: Latin-Amerika i dag. Nye interesser og gamle bånd til USA, Kina, Russland, Midtøsten og Europa
Full text linkKampen om naturressursar: Benedicte Bull byr ikkje berre på grundige analysar av stormaktspolitikk og samfunnsforhold i Latin-Amerika, ho byr òg på seg sjølv
Venezuela : de la crisis económica al captialismo elitista bodegonero
No full textBenedicte Bull, Antulio Rosales y Manuel Sutherlan
"Business groups and transnational capitalism in Central America: economic and political strategies", de Benedicte Bull, Fulvio Castellacci y Yuri Kasahara
Full text linkReseña del libro "Business groups and transnational capitalism in Central America: economic and political strategies", de Benedicte Bull, Fulvio Castellacci y Yuri Kasahara
Introduction: the emergence and evolution of business groups in Central America
No full textCentral America as a region has made world headlines mainly due to civil wars, insurgencies, and, more recently, drug-trafficking and youth gang violence. Central American enterprises are only rarely studied; even less so are the Central American conglomerates and business groups that, albeit small by Latin American and global standards, play a significant role in the region’s economies. If they are studied at all, it is mainly as supporters of repressive dictatorships or corrupt regimes, or as the incarnation of colonizers and landholders, dominating the system that is considered to be the root cause of most of Central America’s problems.
Bull, Benedicte; Castellacci, Fulvio; Kasahara, Yuri, Chapter 1: Introduction: the emergence and evolution of business groups in Central America , 2014, Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, reproduced with permission of Palgrave Macmillan'.
This extract is taken from the author's original manuscript and has not been edited. The definitive, published, version of record is available here: https://doi.org/10.1057/978113735940
Media Captured: Elites’ Cohesion and Media Networks in Costa Rica and El Salvador
Full text link„Media Capture“ findet statt, wenn Eliten (in-)direkte Strategien aufwenden, um vorteilhafte Informationen zu verbreiten oder unvorteilhafte Informationen zu unterdrücken (Besley & Prat, 2006; Corneo, 2006). Die Bedeutung von „Media Capture“ zu kritischen Zeitpunkten, wie beispielsweise Wahlperioden, hatte bereits entscheidende Auswirkungen in der Vergangenheit. Im Fall von „Media Capture“ ist die Wahlentscheidung von Individuen durch die Informationen die diese beziehen, beeinflusst (Besley & Prat, 2006a, p. 721; Enikolopov et al., 2011). Dies ist insbesondere in Zentralamerika relevant, wo der Großteil der ohnehin eingeschränkten Informationen der Menschen im Hinblick auf politische Parteien, Ideologien und Politik im Allgemeinen, aus den Medien stammen (Besley & Prat, 2006a, p. 721; Enikolopov et al., 2011). Bestehende Fachliteratur zu Eliten zeigt die essentielle Bedeutung politischer Wahlen in den Strategien der Wirtschaftselite, insbesondere wenn diese sehr abhängig davon ist, das Land zu kontrollieren (Acemoglu & Robinson, 2006; Bull, 2014; Durand, 2016). Daher ist „Media Capture“ besonders wesentlich für Eliten, wenn politische Wahlen anstehen, da zu dieser Zeit ihr Einfluss unter Umständen bedroht wird. Diese Forschungsarbeit analysiert und erforscht wie, und zu welchem Ausmaß, Eliten „Media Capture“ betreiben, wenn sie sich bedroht fühlen, am Beispiel der Präsidentschaftswahlen 2014 in Costa Rica und El Salvador. Diese Studie bietet eine frische Perspektive auf Eliten und deren Strategien sowie auf Anti-Eliten und Mediennetzwerke. In diesem Forschungsprojekt zeige und argumentiere ich, dass Eliten bezüglich „Media Capture“ verschiedene Strategien in ihrem Repertoire haben und dass ihre Erfolgschancen sich verändern und drastisch erhöhen, sobald sie vereint vorgehen, und wenn es eine Art Netzwerk gibt, welches Gegenstimmen einschränkt. Dies wiederum erweitert drastisch ihre Kapazitäten, die Gesellschaft zu beeinflussen. Wie der Fall von Costa Rica zeigt, findet koordinierte „Media Capture“ statt, wenn Eliten sich vereinigen und wenn die Art von Netzwerk zwischen Eliten und Medien elitär ist. Auf der anderen Seite hat die Fragmentierung der Elite in El Salvador „Media Capture“ in eine Arena der Auseinandersetzung zwischen Eliten und Anti-Eliten verwandelt. Diese Forschungsarbeit wendet eine Vorgehensweise gemischter Methoden an, mit dem primären Ziel, auf diesen gegenseitig aufzubauen und zu komplementieren. Methoden der Datenerhebung beinhalten direkte Befragungen von Eliten sowie Aufzeichnungen. Diese Studie bietet tiefe Einblicke im Hinblick auf Faktoren, welche „Media Capture“ vereinfachen und auf die Art von Strategien und Maßnahmen, die Eliten ergreifen, um vorhandene Informationen zu verändern oder zu unterdrücken.Media capture occurs when elites exert (in)direct actions to suppress or to disseminate (un)favorable information (Besley & Prat, 2006; Corneo, 2006). The importance of media capture at critical junctures, such as electoral processes, has been decisive. When media is captured the voting decisions of individuals are affected by the information they received (Besley & Prat, 2006a, p. 721; Enikolopov, Petrova, & Zhuravskaya, 2011). This is particularly relevant in Central America, where most people’s information about political parties, ideologies and politics comes from the media (Becerra, Mastrini, & D’Alessandro, 2009; Rockwell & Janus, 2003; Sandoval García, 2008). Also, literature on elites has demonstrated how elections are crucial in business elites’ strategies, especially when their power derives from the control they exert over the state (Acemoglu & Robinson, 2006; Bull, 2014; Durand, 2016). Thus, media capture is crucial for elites during elections because that is the time when their influence may be jeopardized. This research analyzes and explores how and to what extent elites in Central America capture the media when they feel threatened during elections. It studies media capture strategies before and during the 2014 presidential elections in Costa Rica and El Salvador. The study offers a fresh perspective on elites and their strategies, and their interactions with counter-elites and media networks. In the rest of this research, I show that elites have different strategies at their disposal for media capture and that their chances to successfully do so drastically increase when they are more cohesive and when there a network in place that constrains opposing voices. This, in turn, strongly augments their capacity to influence the society. In Costa Rica, coordinated media capture occurred because elites were cohesive, and the type of networks woven by elites and media are so called elitist. On the contrary, in El Salvador, the fragmentation of elites since 2009 and a pluralist media network turned media capture into an arena of fierce dispute among elites and counter-elites. This research employs a mixed method approach with the primary goal of building upon and complementing each method. Analysis and data collection methods techniques included interviews with elites that provide new empirical evidence on the strategies’ elites employed to capture the media. Historical analysis to understand the historically grounded explanations of elites’ cohesion. Finally, Social Network Analysis (SNA) was a tool to map and uncover the ties among elites and media
Securitization of narcotraffic in Mexico
Full text linkThe war on drugs has being a major issue for Mexico. In this thesis we follow how narcotraffic became to be an extraordinary threat for Mexico. How some of the presidential administrations have shifted the discourse on drugs in different directions, which have resulted in a variety of outcomes. Mexico first began securitizing narcotraffic as a response to foreign policy, but at the same time distributed responsibilities to drug’ consumer countries. Later on, the government of Mexico declared war against narcotraffic, which altered all the panorama of Mexico. Violence and human rights violations skyrocket in Mexico. On the other hand, the following administration is trying to desecuritize narcotraffic. Drastically removing the words war and narcotraffic from their speeches and instead try to use phrases such as Mexico in peace.M-I
Protecting democracy? : the role of the OAS and UNASUR when facing democratic crises in Latin America
Full text linkBeing a region that has undergone numerous dictatorships and authoritarian regimes throughout history, Latin America has over the past two decades enjoyed significant democratic stability. Despite this, the challenges to democracy in the region have not vanished, and a number of countries have experienced democratic crises over the past decade. Many of the international organizations in the region have engaged in these crises as they have democracy protection as part of their political agendas. Democracy was consensually defined as representative in type, and the Organization of American States (OAS) the designated organization to protect it at the turn of the millennium. As of 2016, this consensus is challenged by the emergence an alternative understanding of democracy as participatory in type, and Unión de Naciones Suramericanas (UNASUR) as an alternative organization for democracy protection. The thesis addresses the roles played by these organizations in five empirical cases of democratic crises: Bolivia, 2008; Honduras, 2009; Ecuador, 2010; Paraguay, 2012, and Venezuela at present.
The thesis is a qualitative case study research exercise in which the cases are the organizations, and the primary sources of data is relevant literature and interviews conducted with relevant actors. The thesis presents two hypotheses that serve as guides throughout. The first states that the divergent understandings of democracy in the region affect the role pf the organizations in the crises, and the second claims that state interests hamper the “actorness” of the organizations. The thesis employs Peripheral Realism as the theory with which it aims to answer the research question and address the hypotheses. The thesis argues that the theory is better equipped to explain political motivations and normativity in Latin America and the thesis involves a critique of Liberal Institutionalism, a common theory used to advocate for international organizations and their importance in global politics.
The thesis argues that UNASUR is a counterhegemonic organization that by virtue of defining democracy generically is normatively and ideologically more suitable to engage in democratic crises than the OAS. The values underpinning participatory democracy is a real alternative in the region, rendering the applicability of the IADC questionable. The thesis argues that organizations do not have “actorness” as they share the same weakness of having their decision-making process susceptible to national interests and concerns of sovereignty by member states. Both organizations settle with elections as the benchmark of reinstatement of democracy, but eroding democratic governance in-between elections is unaddressed. Theoretically, the thesis claims that the universality of Liberal Institutionalism is false.M-I
The influence of agribusiness on Brazilian WTO policy
Full text linkBrazil has been the first developing country challenging and winning an economic dispute on agricultural issue against the United State of America (USA).
This thesis is a case study of the Cotton Dispute at the Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). The Cotton Dispute was initiated by Brazil due to certain protectionist subsidies that the USA had on cotton.
The study took as a starting point the Brazilian domestic inequality and the presence of a strong agribusiness sector, and it focused on who lied behind the Brazilian victory at the WTO. The aim was to analyse the role of a strong Brazilian cotton association, ABRAPA, in order to understand whether they had influenced the Brazilian WTO policy. ABRAPA is the Brazilian Cotton Growers Association.
The analysis followed Putnam’s theoretical framework and was carried in two levels, the domestic and international levels. In addition, Putnam’s theory was integrated with Lukes’s first dimension of power.
At the national level ABRAPA played a role in influencing the Brazilian WTO policy by the use of economic, technical, and legal capacities. These represent the association’s potential power in influencing the WTO policy.
At the international level, ABRAPA’s role was given by its successful contribution in the dispute. The DSB found in fact that the US subsidies were not conformed to the WTO agreement.
However, the study found that ABRAPA’s influence to the Brazilian WTO policy can be understood only in cooperation with the Brazilian Government. ABRAPA and the Government were, in this study, the Brazilian domestic constituency and they had shared economic interests.
The interests at stake also contributed in understanding why what started as a dispute in the WTO, ended in a bilateral negotiation. The bilateral negotiation resulted favouring not only the USA, but also ABRAPA and the Government on the Brazilian side. ABRAPA played a role in widening the Brazilian domestic win-set and facilitated the ratification of the bilateral negotiation.M-I
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